Caplanian Mental Health Consultation: Historical Background and Current Status

This article traces the historical roots of Caplanian mental health consultation and lists nine aspects of the model that have proved valuable over time. A relatively new development, mental health collaboration, is discussed with reference to the internal consultant. The role of mental health consultation in primary prevention is briefly reviewed, and it is argued that consulting psychologists who conduct organization development would do well to consider explicitly the preventive aspects of their work. The paper concludes with some thoughts regarding potential problems of working through intermediary caregivers to achieve the goals of primary prevention.